This invention relates to conveyor belts such as commonly employed in feeding comminuted materials to processing vessels in chemical, metallurgical and other processing industries and more particularly to chain link driven flexible conveyor belts.
Usually it is possible to feed these materials to such equipment by means of screw conveyors, belts, and other conventional solids handling apparatus. However, in certain instances where conveyor belts are used these belts must be guided in an arcuate path. Heretofore, the guiding means for these belts around their arcuate paths have been rollers mounted along the peripherial edges of the belt. Not only has this been unsatisfactory causing buckling of the belt but it also has resulted in undue wear of the belt thereby shortening its useful life.
As evident from U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,943 granted to the applicant of this application, drag chains formed by pivotally connectable links have been provided to move in an arcuate configuration and around corners in a predetermined path. These links have relied on a dragging action to move abrasive solid materials. Such drag chains are typically endless belts formed by interconnecting metal links which are specially constructed to withstand the severe conditions encountered.
A need exists, however, for a flexible belt conveyor which can be driven in a manner of a drag chain or in combination with chain links so as to carry solid materials around corners avoiding the use of the edge guiding rollers of the prior art.